It has happened again.
On Thursday, the Suez Canal Authority was forced to deal with another ship running aground in the high-traffic waterway.
But this time, there was no global shipping traffic jam.
The Coral Crystal, which measures 225 metres in length and 32 metres in width, was passing through the canal with 401 tonnes of cargo when it ran aground.
It's not clear why it ran aground, but the bulk carrier was reportedly only stuck for short time — some international reports said it took just 15 minutes.
Luckily, it was stuck in a double-lane section of the canal, so other vessels could keep going on their way in another lane.
Earlier this year another ship became lodged in the canal for much longer.
The 440-metre-long Ever Given was wedged in the canal for six days, creating a massive traffic jam and causing international shipping delays as vessels were forced to go around Africa instead of passing through the canal.
It was then held in the Great Bitter Lake for about three months while a financial dispute between the ship's owners and the Suez Canal Authority was settled.
The Ever Given eventually reached its intended destination, the Dutch port of Rotterdam, more than 100 days after getting stuck.
No doubt painfully aware of the Ever Given meme saga, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) was on the front foot about this latest clogging.
It put out a statement titled "Traffic in the canal uninterrupted" shortly after the Coral Crystal was freed and tweeted the following terse request:
"The authority calls on all media outlets to be accurate in what is being published, not to pay attention to news of unknown source and to rely on Suez Canal official information and news issued by the authority."
– Suez Canal Authority
The authority's chair, Ossama Rabiee, said his team had "sufficient navigational and technical safety capabilities as well as the infrastructure required to deal with emergencies".
He called the situation a "very brief grounding incident":
"The incident was resolved in a professional manner through the aid of SCA tug boats, and the ship resumed its transit through the canal.
"Traffic was not negatively impacted in any way since it was directed to the eastern branch of Al- Ballah bypass."
– Suez Canal Authority
The SCA later tweeted video of the ship moving on after it was freed.
However, even though the whole situation was over quickly, there were still plenty of reactions on Twitter:
ABC/Wires
